Google Camera VS Stock Camera on GrapheneOS (Google Pixel 6) - UPDATED

There's a small issue with the metadata comparison at the end of the video. It appears you sent the photos in a way which runs them through Android's image handling library such as sending them via a messaging app. This has added a bit of metadata to both the GrapheneOS Camera and Google Camera examples. GrapheneOS Camera strips all the EXIF metadata other than the Orientation field by default.

The metadata shown by exiftool also includes the local filesystem metadata on the computer where you're running it and information about the image content and bundled thumbnail. Normally, that would be all that's shown in addition to Orientation.

I'd suggest doing the test again but transferring the photos another way like a flash drive. I think you must have sent them via a messaging app which tries to strip certain EXIF metadata like location and accidentally ends up adding more metadata about the method they used to remove it.

Does Google Camera on GrapheneOS perform exactly the same as Google Camera on Android? Same functions, including astrophotography, and produces pictures of the same quality? Cheers.

What makes the Google Cam better is post processing. Therefore I guess you could have a software turn the GOS pictures into something more like what the GCAM puts out.

I use the MWP gcam mod, it has a cool black and white mode built in, and also lets you adjust most image processing paramaters including the tone curve, contrast, shadows/highlights, hdr chatacteristics, saturation, etc etc, it helps mitigate gcams aggro approach to hdr. While I use gcam, I'm suprised how good the graphene os camera app is, and they're making some bold claims that they'll be as good as gcam on most ways in the future, which is cool. I'm addicted to the MWP mod's black and white mode for now though.

It's been a year since you made this video. What do you think of this topic now?

HELP! I bought a pixel 7 pro and I couldn't find videos about releasing 5g for countries that don't officially sell google cell phones, as is the case in Brazil, DO YOU HAVE ANY VIDEO ON HOW TO DO IT WITH OR WITHOUT ROOT?

What would you recommend on Pixel 6a, GCAM or GOS?

The graph cam is ratchet, took a photo of the tv screen and it put a weird blue tint on the tv feed.

"Most of us take photos on our phones and never look at them again." That is the realistic statement I've heard all year. I don't understand the obsession with phone cameras? If it's such a big deal to that customer, buy a nice camera 🤷🏻‍♂️

Hi Josh, thanks for motivating me to install Graphene OS, but I am struggling a bit. I have been trying for 2 days to install GCAM via Aurora to no avail. It comes up with "download failed app not purchased". I tried all advice from reddit force quitting, clearing app data starting insecure session in networking settings. Nothing. It is getting very frustrating as I really need GCAM due to upcoming trip. Can you help with any advice ?

Refreshing to see a proper camera app without all the ugly edge mode algorithms and fake HDR.

I hope the folks that did the cam app for GOS are taking notes.

What tool did you use to get EXIF data :) ?

I stopped using Google Camera after noticing that it would produce horrible color banding in many pictures I would take. Not sure if it was a compression artifact or what, but I had it set to "fine" meaning higher quality. I am not surprised by the difference in file size. I also could not stand the contrast filter that GCam applies, it looks gaudy. Outdoor pics look nice with GCam, but indoor ones especially are awful. Graphene's camera seems much more consistent to me, and after doing my own comparison I decided Graphenes camera was much better and have been using it for approx. 6 months over GCam. I use a Pixel 6 too

Good content

how do I turn on the camera from the lock screen on graphene OS?

Sorry, camera is priority for me.

Great video! Does the gcam app support the “top shot” or burst mode feature on graphene?

If you wanted to, could you run Gcam while running GOS? If you can, I’m sold

GCAM certainly has more detail & dynamic range, Google has invested a lot of time into their cameras. Though in surprised with how good GOS is.

I know on the Galaxy S7 the difference between the stock camera app & an random unoptimized app is massive, so it's nice to see that GOS has fine tuned their cameras so well. I'm sure it helps that google uses the same few camera modules across various phones.

recording sound on gos mono and on gcam stereo.. obviously I choose gcam

with one of latest Graphene releases, they added a gservices install option, have you covered this and what latest method for gcam is?

I really want to de-Google my Pixel but the GrapheneOS camera app doesn’t even come close to Google’s. Also I rely on Google Maps for real-time public transport a LOT. I’m not a huge photo taker but there is an obvious difference here.

Thank you so much for your work!!

This is driving me a bit crazy - Gcam just applies sharpening, GOS doesn't. GOS isnt smoothing out anything.

I wonder why the GOS photos took up so much more data? Especially since the GCam ones seemed sharper, more photo realistic, and had more EXIF data attached to them.

I like your Videos.

Good video, I had my first travel experience with graphene, and will probably change to another one, faire mail, has stopped working with my gmail recently and no fixing which to hard, in the browser emails don’t get sent, it’s getting too painful to change profile all the time and google map isn’t working properly

keep up the great work Josh!

Really great video! Please keep up with all such good work! I really appreciate such content. I have to say that on my pixel 6 I have been trying for some months the GOS camera and for me the main drawback was that it was not focusing correctly so all my pictures were ending blurred in the main focus point. I reverted back to GCAM but I am for sure planning to give GOS another shot somewhere in the future.

Thank you for the video, it was very helpful! The issue with the GOS app taking pics with lower detail is something I noticed when I did my own comparison between my Graphene Pixel 4a and my old iPhone X (different phone but still 12mp sensor). Interestingly in the video section the effect is reversed and the GOS video has seemingly more detail when zoomed in than the Gcam video... I hope the GOS app can keep improving and eliminate the difference in details captured compared to Gcam, in the meanwhile I'll stick to my 4a since the main reason I wanted to upgrade to the 6 pro was the camera, and I'm not willing to install Gcam.

Check out the gcam service provider

Thanks

Haha it was worth it!! Thank you!

I really appreciate all the privacy based OS information you consistently put out. I was just wondering about the camera differences.

Thanks Josh great demo. So I just got my Pixel 6 with GrapheneOs installed. Now what! I did follow your videos and they have been invaluable. I just have a question or two on a few apps I like to use but am having some trouble with.
1. Protonmail I'm not getting the notification that email came in.
2. Ebay can open app
3. Ring the app is a bit buggy

Any help .....

Thanks for Video :) Can you make a manual installation guide for Grapheneos?

Great video :)